Buffalo May 14, 2022

Vincent Hostak

May 21, 2022

In September the pink-striped steelhead will run

but we’re already in waders in our dreams

the weary Niagara retreats to the north

away from the shoals and their stiff threads of grief

all of what we lost today with no trail back

church lunches with passion-fruit cake 

the excitement for a trip to Devil’s Hole

the sight of cormorants clouding the shore

and no matter how hard it may have been

to breathe another day in this world, we lost

the fragrant balm from witch-hazel shrubs 

        that you once mistook for lemon.

Vincent Hostak is a writer and media producer from Texas now living near the Front Range of Colorado south of Denver. His recently published poems are found in the journals Sonder Midwest and the Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas and as a contributor to the TPA. He writes & produces the podcast: Crossings-the Refugee Experience in America.